TRUDY RUBIN Here's hoping for bin Laden's demise

Here are some New Year's wishes for a group of folks who will have a big impact on your safety in 2004.
As we know from the Christmas terror alerts, the threat of plane bombs and dirty bombs is still with us. The future of Iraq remains uncertain. We don't know whether the Iraq war will fuel the terror threat or reduce it.
So let us all hope that the following people get what they deserve next year.
For Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf: May Allah protect you from any future attempts on your life like the two you narrowly survived this month.
Islamic militants want to kill Musharraf for helping the United States overthrow the Taliban and assisting the hunt for Al-Qaida members. Pakistan has dozens of nuclear weapons, and some of its scientists are already accused of leaking nuclear secrets to other countries. If fanatics ever seized those bombs, the danger they posed to us would make nuke-less Saddam look like a piker. So wish President Musharraf longevity.
For Afghan President Hamid Karzai, he of the elegant capes and hats: May your friends increase their support.
Focus
When the U.S. focus shifted to Iraq, funds for Afghanistan faded, even though the Taliban have been making a comeback. That threat finally galvanized the Bush administration; more U.S. money has been pledged and a long-delayed road from Kabul to Kandahar was finally finished with U.S. funding. Let's hope Karzai and his new Afghan constitution now get the attention they deserve.
For Osama bin Laden (or, as one of my friends calls him, Osama bin Forgotten): May you, too, get the U.S. attention you deserve.
No doubt it's harder to penetrate mountain caves on the Afghan-Pakistan border than it was to find Saddam Hussein's hole, especially when top U.S. intelligence analysts were tied up looking for the Iraqi. But Osama's demise would do more to undermine Islamic jihadis who want to drag the world back to the eighth century. May this be his year to meet a less-than-glorious martyrdom.
For Paul Bremer, the czar of the U.S. civilian occupation authority in Iraq: May you succeed in your pragmatic efforts to overcome the lack of planning by Pentagon ideologues for postwar occupation.
Bremer's strength has been his willingness to rethink U.S. mistakes and rejigger policy to fit Iraqi realities. Now he is trying to find a way to turn over sovereignty to Iraqis, by mid-2004, that will hold the country together and avoid civil war. So far he hasn't found a setup that will win the support of a majority of Iraqis.
May Bremer have the foresight to foster a framework that lets Iraqis pick a government that will be viewed as legitimate, rather than one selected by U.S. officials. This will be the key to establishing a reasonable level of Iraqi stability next year.
For Maj. Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the 101st Airborne in northern Iraq: May your thoughtful strategizing on how to help Iraqi nation-building be taken to heart at the Pentagon.
Petraeus, who did a doctorate at Princeton on the lessons of Vietnam and served in Bosnia and Kosovo, put together a strategy to woo unhappy Sunni Iraqis. It combined sophisticated carrots with carefully applied sticks. Other commanders used heavy sticks and minimal carrots, and the insurgency continued. Since Hussein's capture, more focus is being put on how to woo the nervous Sunni minority, which fears for its future now that their community no longer controls power.
Strategy
Stability in Iraq depends on a smart Sunni strategy. Petraeus and his unit leave early next year, but let's hope his example becomes wider policy in Iraq.
For Maj. George Sarabia and Maj. Paul Goss, civil-affairs officers working with the Army's Second Armored Cavalry Regiment in the Shiite slums of Baghdad: May you and all other U.S. civil-affairs experts ... see some reward for your work.
It isn't easy trying to transmit civilian skills to suspicious Iraqis in the midst of chaotic conditions, and these efforts are often frustrated. May they bear some fruit.
And, finally: May all the troops in Iraq, including National Guard and reserve units, finally get the Kevlar protective vests and special insertive plates that can make the difference between living and dying.
XTrudy Rubin is a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer.